Kelly grad Essner makes splash in juco softball

Kelly High School graduate Kelly Essner made a splash in her freshman season at Jefferson College, leading the team in nearly every offensive category en route to junior college second-team All-American honors.

Essner hit .439 with 59 runs scored, 53 RBIs, 25 doubles, four home runs and 25 steals as Jefferson made it to the junior college national championship in the program's first year. Jefferson went 1-2 to tie for ninth at the tournament and finished the season 49-16.

Along with All-American honors, Essner also earned all-region and all-conference honors. Essner was second on the team in innings pitched with 121. She struck out 135 batters and had an ERA of 1.43.

Delta graduate Sarah Cook also played for the Vikings this past season.

Class 1 soccer honors

Perryville senior Amber Hacker and Notre Dame junior Meridith Medlin each were named first-team all-state by the Missouri Soccer Coaches Association.

Notre Dame junior Destiny Dirnberger was honorable mention all-state.

Medlin also earned player of the year honors in the Southeast Region in Class 1.

Medlin finished with 15 goals for the Bulldogs. Dirnberger joined Medlin as first-team all-region.

Hacker was named the offensive player of the year in the Southeast Region, and Pirates junior Chastity Marr was the goalie of the year.

Perryville freshman defender Ava Johnson and sophomore forward Kendra Schilli also made the first team, as did St. Vincent sophomore midfielder Sara Moll and sophomore defender Kelsey Cissell.

Medlin, Dirnberger and Kaitlyn Scheeter were first-team all-district selections for the Bulldogs.

Schilli, Hacker, Johnson and Marr made the all-district first team from Perryville, and Brooke Brown, Moll and Cissell made the first team from St. Vincent.

Scott-Miss. all-conference

Oran sophomore Kody Campbell was named the Scott-Mississippi player of the year after hitting better than .500 in a state final four run for the Eagles.

Campbell was one of four first-team members for the Eagles. Sophomore Caleb Seyer, junior Chase Seyer and senior Austin Dumey also made the first team.

Scott City sophomores Cody Carlyle and Ryan Modglin, junior Blake Dirnberger and senior Andy Stephens made the first team from Scott City. Rams coach Mike Umfleet was coach of the year.

Chaffee sophomores Steven Dooley and Josh Steger joined junior Chris Hanback in earning first-team honors as well.

Class 2 all-district baseball

Class 2 District 2 runner-up Kelly placed three players on the all-district team.

Seniors Jordan Felter, Jon Simpher and Caleb Daughhetee all made the team from Kelly.

Darin Yamnitz and Scott Blythe made the team from St. Vincent, Andy Stephens and Cody Carlyle represented Scott City and Kyle Reynolds made the team from Woodland.

Central all-stars

Central seniors Ty Craft and Lance Young will play in the Class 4 senior all-star series game June 24 at T.R. Hughes Stadium in O'Fallon, Mo. The all-star series is sponsored by the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association.

Student-athletes

Notre Dame's combined cross country squads were among the school's nine teams honored for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement in the February edition of the MSHSAA Journal.

The cross country program posted a cumulative grade point average of 3.96 to earn the recognition for outstanding achievement, which is extended to teams with GPAs of 3.25 or above.

Also on the list from Notre Dame: boys junior varsity soccer (3.25), the boys varsity soccer (3.76), girls freshman volleyball (3.67), girls JV volleyball (3.54), girls varsity volleyball (3.74), girls JV softball (3.67), girls varsity softball (3.58) and combined JV cross country (3.55).

Jackson had 15 activities recognized: girls JV volleyball (3.71), girls varsity volleyball (3.67), boys JV soccer (3.25), girls JV bsaketball (3.71), girls varsity basketball (3.67), girls JV softball (3.36), girls varsity softball (3.46), girls varsity soccer (3.38), boys varsity baseball (3.45), boys varsity basketball (3.29), boys varsity cross country (3.69), girls varsity cross country (3.82), girls varsity cheerleading (3.67), varsity academic competition (3.63) and speech and debate (3.36).

Also, Jackson's varsity boys soccer made the Distinguished Scholastic Achievement list with a GPA of 3.14.

Orr signs

Central High School graduate Meghan Orr signed a letter of intent Wednesday to attend Neosho County Community College.

Fambro will walk on

Rashad Fambro, a Central graduate, has accepted an invitation to walk-on the Murray State football team next season. Fambro was a standout lineman with the Tigers.